Camera Equipment & Accessories

This section of the blog will be dedicated to ‘run and gun’ camera equipment and accessories–stuff that’s good to use, fit to purpose, will fit in your two cases and which you won’t mind carrying around.

Check the drop-down menu under “Camera Equipment and Accessories” for available articles.

Nothing fancy. I’ve got 3 softboxes with 135 watt spiral bulbs which I got off eBay. I just got you a sample link (which you’ll find with the key words ‘continuous lighting softbox’) and in the process found that the price is now half of what they used to be for the same thing–2 lights and stand for £35! Here’s a sample link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x135W-Continuous-Day-Light-Photo-Studio-Lighting-Softbox-Sets-50-x-70-cm-New-/141288000348?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20e56bcb5c
As you can see these are cheap and cheerful. You don’t need anything fancy and expensive. They’re also feather-weight.
That said, I’ve switched over to LEDs. I have two of the Flexlites that I did a review on in this blog. I carry those along with two floro bulbs (one spare). Since I have 3 soft boxes I use one of them for the LED key light. I usually don’t use a softbox for the backlight, but instead control spill with black foil. I just put it up on a stand, though I can put it in a softbox if I want to. If I ever need a third light, I use the floro. All together, the lights only weigh a few pounds (plus the weight of the stands which are also very light). I have retained and still carry a couple of my old Desisti light stands which are a bit more robust and also go higher. So I carry one of the bigger stands and 3 of the lighter stands and one short stand, plus various clip-on mounts for clipping or hanging lights. I then use one or two of the extra stands sometimes to clip foil to for purposes of controlling spill. That about covers it.

No, your comment is completely relevant. I didn’t watch their video but did see the list of stuff they brought along which wasn’t really that much–except for that $8000 motorized gimbal which will have been the least used bit of kit, but presumably they needed it for something specific. You don’t spend that much for something and haul it half-way across the world for no reason or to impress the natives.

Hey Joe, I’ve just completed the reading of your book. Absolutely brilliant, I love your approach to seek for simplicity and mobilty. I’ve just recently found an example which I found so weird and irritating: http://stillmotionblog.com/less-gear-case-study-namibia/ The guys arranged a 5 – 6 member expedition with a lot of insanely expensive cameras on cumbersome and hilariously expensive gimbals, and they gave the title “When Less Gear is More” I simply don’t undertand these videographers. Visiting a stone-age village in Namibia with these gear, hmm, I don’t know: one camera of the crew cost possibly 100 times more then 10 year revenue of the entire village. Am I missing something, Joe? When I visit a village to meet and video locals (mostly folk music from old people), I did my best to remain totally invisible. Huh, if you found my comment irrelevant, simply delet it. Thank You, Miklos